Umayyad Architecture
Dome of the Rock mosque, Jerusalem
People didn't build a lot of new buildings during
the
Umayyad period, mainly
because they were busy getting organized after the
Islamic
conquests, and because the Umayyad dynasty didn't rule very
long. One of the first buildings they did build, in the 600's
AD,
was the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, on the site where the
Jewish
temple had been before the Romans destroyed it. Right away you
can see that
Islamic mosques
are very different from
Christian
churches. Instead of being made like a Roman
basilica,
long and narrow, the Dome of the Rock is hexagonal (six-sided).
The architect may have been thinking of Roman funeral chapels, which
were sometimes polygonal (many-sided) like this, or he may have
been thinking of early Christian
baptistries,
which also were polygonal.
Great Mosque in Damascus
Another early Umayyad building was the Great Mosque in the Umayyad
capital of Damascus (in modern Syria), which was built about 710
AD. (for the interior,
click here).
This was built more like a Christian
church, but you'll notice there are no pictures of people on it
- only plants and buildings.
Another Umayyad building was the Great Mosque at Cordoba in Spain.
The builders took the many columns from older Roman
buildings, which is why they don't match each other. The striped
stone, which is also found on the inside of the Dome of the Rock,
became a very common choice in Islamic architecture, and was soon
copied in Italy too, for instance in the cathedrals
of Florence
and Pisa.
The last major building of the Umayyad dynasty was
built in the 700's AD, in North Africa (modern Tunisia) - the Great
Mosque of Kairouan. Kairouan's mosque has
the oldest surviving minaret in the world.
